Zookeepers have called the adorable new arrival Dotty
Chester Zoo has welcomed a new arrival(Image: Reach plc )
Chester Zoo has announced the birth of an adorable new arrival today, Thursday April 2. One of the world’s smallest baby antelopes has taken her first steps at the zoo, with staff sharing she is barely taller than a tin of baked beans.
Zookeepers have called the adorable new arrival Dotty, and when fully grown, she’ll reach just 40cm tall. Dotty is being raised with the help of a surrogate dad after her biological dad died of old age shortly before her birth. A new male dik-dik named Dan, who arrived from a zoo in Cumbria in February will be a father figure for the antelope.
Megan Carpenter, Assistant Team Manager of Small Mammals at Chester Zoo, said: “Dik-diks are naturally very shy animals, so for the first couple of weeks Chrissy’s tiny fawn has been tucked away in a quiet, cosy den, with mum popping back to feed and check on her. Now though, she’s beginning to find her feet and we’re seeing those lovely first steps as she heads out on her first little outdoor adventures.”
One of the world’s smallest baby antelopes has taken her first steps at the zoo(Image: Chester Zoo)
The species is often found in the scrublands and mountainous regions of Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia in Africa, where they take their name from the sharp, high-pitched “dik-dik” alarm call they make when startled and as they dart for cover.
They use their elongated, flexible noses to pluck leaves directly from branches, this is a unique feature found only in dik-diks. They mark their territory using scent glands beneath their eyes and between their toes.
Last year, Chester Zoo was named England’s most popular attraction outside of London. It is the third most popular paid attraction in England, with 1,947,544 visitors coming through the gates in 2024.
The Chester attraction said their journey is one of “scientific discovery, and pushing for policy change to help the planet.” Every person who walks through the Chester Zoo gates is directly contributing to global conservation efforts. Founded by the Mottershead family, the zoo welcomed its first visitors on June 10 1931.
Zookeepers have called the adorable new arrival Dotty(Image: Chester Zoo)
Today, the zoo has over 165,000 members. The attraction is currently voted the best zoo in the UK on TripAdvisor. The zoo’s 128-acre site in Chester is home to more than 37,000 animals and more than 500 species.
On the Chester Zoo website, it states: “We pride ourselves on our global conservation work, the zoo is key part of 139 international conservation breeding programmes, working with 62 conservation partners in 19 countries to protect wildlife and people.”
Plenty of animal groups can be found at the Chester site. These include birds, amphibians, invertebrates, reptiles and mammals. The zoo recently opened the largest UK zoo habitat ever created.
Home to 57 iconic African species, the new Heart of Africa zone, spanning more than 22.5 acres, has been designed to recreate a variety of grassland habitats found across central Africa.
